Nissan President?

WTF is that? :p

Anyone have a picture?

The President is Nissan's flagship luxury car in Japan. Americans may remember it as the mk1 Q45 of the early 90s. Oddly, the japanese retain popular automobiles, regardless of whether or not a newer model is built. A prime example would be the continuation of the 180SX hatchback all the way through '97, built alongside the S13 and S14 Silvias. In this case, age doesn't signify obsoletion. Nissan's Mr. President has grown much since its original inception. The Cima/New Q may take the international spotlight, but there's nothing like a classy car--especially one that satisfies modern needs.

All shots from Nissan's japanese corporate website:

That top pic reminds me of a Ford Crown Vic or its Mercury counterpart. LOL.

Yeah, doesn't it? I wonder if cop cruisers in Japan have the upper hand in the speed factor, as ours do.

Once on the way to Vegas, I was running steady at 85, when this 5.0 Mustang state trooper passed me (crossing over the yellow-dashed oncoming lane) at about 115mph or so. It's days like those that I am proud to have serious law-enforcement agencies in our nation, as opposed to the funky laughable little minicoppers they have in Europe, whining the WHEE-AHH, WHEE-AHH, WHEE-AHH (heh, reminds me of Mr. Bean).

However, one thing to be envious of the japanese is this thing they do about keeping older model cars, even though they design and produce newer ones. I was stunned the first time I heard that Nissan decided to continuously build the 180SX alongside the S14 all the way through 1997. Being a hardened fan of the SR20DET powered machines, it was music to my ears (especially because they gave the 180SX a nice facelift, which I intend to incorporate into an S13 240SX hatch when I purchase one in September).

Below: the most recent 180SXs

The nice new skirts and spoiler are factory equipment, alongside the freshened taillights (available at around $500 in the U.S. for the whole set). You may have seen the wheels on some later G20's and '97-'98 240SX's as a dealer option variety.

Moderators: PLEASE don't move these posts, I am trying to display the significance of the Japanese auto-marketing strategy of keeping popular models alive.

Below: the ominous staring glow of the circular rear lights at night. Somewhat similar to the Skyline's trademark derriere.

180SX with a new bunghole. Note the relocation of the Nissan emblem. Nice touch!

Redone front bumper/airdam. I don't know about you guys, but I REALLY enjoy pop-up headlights, and I'm glad Nissan retained them until the 180SX's end. And none of that aftermarket 'lazy-eyed' poppers that the NSX made popular for the MR2, RX-7 and others. The full pop-up headlight is a sign of genuine sports. Perhaps switching to half-open headlights is interesting for outside viewers, but that shows ignorance in the sense that the driver only considers what others think of their machine, instead of what they feel is right. Genuine pop-up headlights are BEST viewed from the INSIDE of a car. They let you know what your car was intended for.

Originally posted by morpheusxiii
...And none of that aftermarket 'lazy-eyed' poppers ...

I don't get what you mean by that. :confused: Great post, BTW!!! :D

Some call it "the sleepy-look" or "1/3rd, 2/3rds up". I don't why I make such a big deal about this all the time, but for some reason the look just gets on my nerves. I even KNOW how to perform the mod, but that doesn't mean I would ever do it. Plus, as I mentioned previously, it seems like just another 'trendy' fix that gets away from the original sports car design.

Here is a shot of what it looks like on an S13. Some like it, some don't, but without the right aftermarket lights, it could seriously impair night-time vision:

And people choose to do that? I've never seen that before. Are they fixed in that position, or is the travel just limited? They look broken. I'd be pissed if my headlights did that. ;)

yo morpheous, whre are you located? man, love those pictures!!! i just discovered a new world!! Any chance you might be able to find some real japanese parts for a 98 maxima or buy some parts off those japanese cars?? thanks
wayne~ nizmolee@onebox.com

I don't know how compatible the Maxima is with the Cefiro, but perhaps some chassis/suspension modifications can be had on the U.S. Maxima since they share a chassis. However, if I owned a Max, I would stick to our U.S. performance aftermarket since many of the engine and bolt-on parts (Stillen, HKS, etc.) are built with the highest quality. For suspension I would look into HKS's Hiper Damper, and for more horses I think a good choice would be the Stillen supercharger since it is CARB approved. I don't think anyone would want to lose the comfort, reliability, and street legality of a car like Maxima--a refined rocket, rather than a grunt racer.

But you probably already knew all about this; sorry I can't be more of help.

thanks! i ll look around, my max is okay for now...

WOW!! I just saw this car on the nissan japanese website (lookin for skyline pics) holy, it's looks really nice! Like a mix between an older jaguar vanden plas and some rolls royce...... that is a very nice ride, i wouldn't mind owning. How much do those go for?

Originally posted by Morpheus XIII
Yeah, doesn't it? I wonder if cop cruisers in Japan have the upper hand in the speed factor, as ours do.

Once on the way to Vegas, I was running steady at 85, when this 5.0 Mustang state trooper passed me (crossing over the yellow-dashed oncoming lane) at about 115mph or so. It's days like those that I am proud to have serious law-enforcement agencies in our nation, as opposed to the funky laughable little minicoppers they have in Europe, whining the WHEE-AHH, WHEE-AHH, WHEE-AHH (heh, reminds me of Mr. Bean).


"They have in Europe"... i qualify as one of "them" and you better not fuck with the police here... F.e. in germany and holland they have tuned 993 Turbos chase vehicles... In germany even the freakin old opel vectras were tuned so they had 200 wheel hp , my friend got one that was a cop car before , and it was way more powerful then "normal" V6 vectras... In sweden they have tuned turbo saabs and volvos... I think that here we have faster cop cars then those caprices/crown victorias whatever you have in the us , i know they are probably tuned too , but how they could stand a chance versus a tuned porsche turbo?:flash:

Tell me something, how often do you see these 993 Turbos? You call them "chase vehicles"; here in the States there is a rule to how fast cruisers may tail a suspect. They are allowed to go only so fast and then they are ordered to fall back and allow the affectionately dubbed "ghetto bird" police helicopters to maintain pursuit, with the public safety in mind (so cruisers never really need to engage in a chase over 100mph). The ones that do travel that quickly on a regular basis are generally patrol cars covering wide, open stretches of land. Perhaps there are some demonically fast law enforcement vehicles there, no doubt. Don't get me wrong, the Volvos scattered about your areas make excellent police workhorses. But EVERY single police issue Crown Victoria and alike cruiser here is equipped primarily the same--with some type of tuned 300hp+ 5.7L LS-1 V8 beast or equivalent. Basically, I see on average about 20 of these intimidating vehicles daily.

Furthermore, I must ask, do you think a 993 chassis could withstand the brutality of a Crown Victoria in a demolition derby-like showdown? Speed is great, but with all the retards running from the cops over here, we need plenty of tough Detroit iron here to physically manhandle the suspects vehicles, execute the "California bump" and other high-speed chase thwarting manuevers.

But boy, would that be a great sight to see, a 993 designed to pursue suspects :D (I just wonder what the police on board would do once they catch up to their prey).

Here are some various European police vehicles I found on the web. A few of these things look like our parking enforcement cars:

http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/980867austrianpolice.jpg

http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/808284bavariapolice.jpg

http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/855558belgianpolice.jpg

http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/529450berlinpolice2.jpg

By the way do you have any pictures of this Porsche?

Ok i'll look for some photos of the porsche , but please don't make europe that bad in eyes of unknowlegable pepole , they're not mini morrises after all...

most of the cop cars here now are the (newer) impalas... which are also modified for high speed chase and maneuvers aswell
i think they're the same as all the US ones, north america both canada and the US share the same police vehicles

and those camaro highway patrol cars could probably easily keep up with the european 993

morpheus made a good point, what does the 993 do when it catches up??

cause the vics here and the other police cars, have to do those maneuvers at highspeed.. like bumping the back corner of the chased car to run a suspect off the road if they are dangerous

Ok i'll bet everything i have that the highway camaros don't stand a chance versus german police 993 in a race , whether it's a drag race , a track race , street race whatever , camaro will lose everything of those , belive me , i have seen the german 993 in action , and a F40 that i saw the other day wasn't really accelerating fast in compasion to that cop car... I don't know what they do after keeping up with suspect , but it's not my business either...

okay... that's why i said probably, cause i'm not sure.

but what does the 993 do when it catches up to criminals?

Originally posted by Tom_S8
Ok i'll bet everything i have that the highway camaros don't stand a chance versus german police 993 in a race , whether it's a drag race , a track race , street race whatever , camaro will lose everything of those , belive me , i have seen the german 993 in action , and a F40 that i saw the other day wasn't really accelerating fast in compasion to that cop car... I don't know what they do after keeping up with suspect , but it's not my business either...

I'm on your side Tom. I had once a chance to see a Switzerland Police car in action versus a Ferrari, they used a 993 tuned by Sportec (stage 4) 0-60 ~4s. And it's true we have Volvos and other crapy Police cars here but they are not used to chase - that for we have plenty of tuned BMW 3 and 5 series.

Originally posted by Tom_S8
Ok i'll bet everything i have that the highway camaros don't stand a chance versus german police 993 in a race , whether it's a drag race , a track race , street race whatever , camaro will lose everything of those , belive me , i have seen the german 993 in action...

Uh ok, since when are police cars considered race cars? If they were, then I'm sure we would see Vipers, C5Rs, and S7s, instead of Crown Victorias and Caprices. Like I said, speed is irrelevent at a certain point, aircraft can take care of business. Honestly, if I were fleeing in a 60mph HMMWV (Hummer), I wouldn't care less about a fragile triple-digit turbocharged 993 on my tail (or running circles around me for that matter) because the only thing that could get in the way of me and my destination would be an old-fashioned M1 Bradley tank.

Since I like big luxury cars That President looks phat.

Those police cops cars are kind of a joke. They are the 325 Carmaro SS with just the police light and other police equpment. In L.A they got Tahoe police cars and some places got Discoveries and Freelanders as polices cars.

Originally posted by deadmaninc
Those police cops cars are kind of a joke. They are the 325 Carmaro SS with just the police light and other police equpment. In L.A they got Tahoe police cars and some places got Discoveries and Freelanders as polices cars.

We have them up in Breckinridge(Colorado). They also use some new Audi.

The Nissan President isn't made any more, but I live in Japan and see them every day. It's the same body style as the early 90's Infiniti Q45, but a lot more luxurious. The tail lights are slightly different, and overall the car is a lot more elegant. Eventually the Infiniti Q45 took on the same body style as the Nissan Cima.